How did Mark Watney fertilize the soil in order to grow his potatoes?

The space toilet used by the Martian astronauts freeze-dried their poop, so it was effectively pathogen-free while preserving those nutrients. Watney collected those freeze-dried poop bags to fertilize his potatoes. The problem is that the freeze-drying process also killed bacteria crucial for plant life.

Why does Mark Watney need to mix human waste earth soil and Martian soil?

“Any pathogens in there would have been dead.” Watney rehydrated his crew’s feces and mixed it with his own. That way, he could take advantage of the nitrates and other elements from the crew’s feces, and still have the bacteria from his own feces into it.

How does Mark grow food in The Martian?

In the bestselling sci-fi novel and upcoming movie “The Martian,” astronaut and botanist Mark Watney survives on Mars for over a year, largely thanks to his ingenious potato crop. In “The Martian,” Watney grows his own food by planting potato eyes in the ground.

How did Mark Watney grow potatoes?

Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon, survives by fertilizing Martian soil with his feces, slicing potatoes, and planting the cuttings in the soil. This eventually grows him enough food to last hundreds of days.

How do potatoes grow in the Martian?

In The Martian, Watney creates a large cylindrical space contained by clear plastic sheets, into which he dumps 126 square meters of Martian soil. To fertilise the potatoes, Watney turns to the only organic material present on Mars: human waste.

Why did he grow potatoes in the Martian?

The reason he had access to Potatoes in space was because the Ares III crew would have been on Mars during Thanksgiving and NASA psychologists thought it would be good for them if they could have food other then the freeze dried nasty-ish space food, so NASA sent them to space with some potatoes which thankfully still …

Where did Mark Watney grow potatoes?

“In ‘The Martian,’ Mark Watney uses the Martian soil to grow potatoes in the controlled environment of the ‘Hab,'” NASA writes in a blog post. “In reality, the soil on Mars actually does have the nutrients plants would need to survive on Mars!”

What plant did Watney grow?

Potatoes
Potatoes. The Potato, also known as Solanum Tuberosum, was one of the most important things when it came to keeping Mark Watney alive on Mars.

How did the Martian survive on potatoes?

He was not surviving on JUST potatoes. Potatoes were his main source of Calories, which was used to spread out and let his other rations (which were full meals) last longer. Rather than eating a ration pack every day… He could eat a ration pack every 4 days or so and eat Potatoes in the meantime, between rations.

Can potatoes be grown on Mars?

In The Martian, potatoes are successfully harvested after 48 sols (a Martian solar day – 24 hours 39 minutes long), but the success of the venture does not last: Watney’s potato-growing is put to an abrupt end as the front of his habitat blows off, exposing his entire crop to the Martian air.

What is in Martian soil?

In fact, the soil on Mars is almost entirely made up of mineral matter, with small amounts of water (See Figure 1). Since living things do not exist on Mars, its soil does not have organic matter. There is no air in Martian soil, since air is specific to Earth’s atmosphere.